Pristina 2 September 2008
The Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr Hashim Thaçi, today hosted the Albanian Minister for Health, Mrs Anila Godo. Dr Alush Gashi, the Kosovan Minister of Health, also took part in the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, on behalf of the Government of Kosovo, Prime Minister Thaçi congratulated Mrs Godo on her appointment as Minister for Health, wishing her good luck and success with her work.
The two expressed their opinion of the excellent level of collaboration between the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and that of Albania. "This collaboration is excellent in all institutional areas. I congratulate the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr Berisha, for the wonderful work he has done, and particularly now that Kosovo and Albania are getting closer through the Durrës-Vërmicë road project, a project which will have a positive impact on our countries, for their economic development and the modernisation of the region," said Mr Thaçi.
Mrs Anila Godo said that "this is my first visit beyond Albania as Minister for Health, and it is natural that this visit should be to Kosovo. I have great pleasure in meeting the Prime Minister of Kosovo, as the Prime Minister of an independent state, which has now taken the place among other sovereign states which it has deserved for so long, a cause for joy for everyone who speaks Albanian," adding that on a personal level Prime Minister Thaçi had always seemed a great man, a figure who had truly found the way to stabilise the situation in Kosovo."
Mrs Godo said, further, that "Prime Minister Thaçi seems well-informed about the health problems both in Kosovo and Albania, and supports our view that for our patients who speak one language and are of one blood, state boundaries should not exist. Fairly good co-operation has existed at the level of transferring Kosovar patients for treatment in Tirana or our patients from the north of Albania to Gjakova, Prizren and Peja. There has been a good tradition of exchange in scientific fields and exchange of information in the areas of public health and other areas of health.
Today, the Albanian Minister for Health, Mrs Anila Godo, and the Kosovan Minister for Health, Dr Alush Gashi signed a co-operation agreement between the Kosovan Ministry of Health and its Albanian counterpart.